D7T mek'Leth (Shortsword) Class
Based on the same hull planform as the D7M Suvwl' QeH (Warrior's Anger) Class Command Cruiser, the Shortsword was designed to deal with the increasing threat from the Romulan Star Empire. Former allies, the Romulans make heavy use of Cloaking Devices, and the Shortsword was designed to blast areas of space with Burst Photon Torpedoes in order to hunt down suspected incursions. She has also seen extensive use in planetary bombardment duties during the General War. Development The original D7 qItI'tinga' (Great Powerful Conqueror) Class was designed as a replacement for the ageing D6A Kl'ar (Leader) Class. The Kl'ar had already proven to be increasingly obsolescent by the late 2230s and a larger, more capable Cruiser was required. Essentially a scaled up and "fleshed out" D6A, the D7 out performed her smaller progenitor in every way. She was faster, more heavily armed, more heavily armoured and shielded and possessed the latest in sensor technology available to the Klingon Empire at that time. Given her basis on a proven design, the introduction of the D7 proceeded quickly beginning in 2242. Production was accelerated, as were withdrawals of the D6A, following the disastrous incursions into Federation space in 2244, 2246 and most seriously in 2248 at the Battle of Bernard. Complete replacement had occurred by 2250, with 2/3rds of the D6A's in service being transferred to the Romulan Star Empire and the remainder being converted for specialised duties. In 2255, after the acquisition of Cloaking Technology from the Romulans, the qItI'tinga' received her first refit, becoming the D7A. Captains were ordered to only engage or disengage the Cloaking Device when outside of Federation sensor range, so as to keep the device a secret from Starfleet Intelligence. This directive was followed successfully for many years, and Federation analysts were unaware of the usage of Cloaking Devices by the Klingon Empire until the beginning of the 2270s. Further refinement to the qItI'tinga' design came in 2264 with the fitting of Heavy Disruptors in place of one pair of standard Disruptors. This gave the resulting D7B considerable forward firepower, able to go toe-to-toe with the Federation Constitution Class. The many stand-offs of the 2260s between the Klingon Defence Force and Starfleet nearly always involved these two classes, although even in the 4-Day War of 2266 they never truly faced off against each other, one or the other withdrawing before a killing blow could be dealt. In 2287, the story of the SuvwI’ QeH Class begins. Whilst this class of ship is named SuvwI’ QeH it would be more appropriate to name it the "vav bortaS” or “Father’s Revenge”. The head of the wealthy and powerful Gorthas family, Doj’kan, financed the conversion of his personal D7B qItI'tinga' Class, the SuvwI’ QeH, into the powerful Command Cruiser used today solely to exact revenge on house Moltak for the death of his son. Doj’kan's son Kroj’duH had been in basic training and was nearing completion when Krang, son of Graltz, caused an accident that killed Kroj’duH and several other young warriors. Graltz contacted his brother Moltak to see if anything could be done to cover the disgrace of his son Krang, thus saving Krang and the House of Moltak a loss of face. Because Moltak was close friends with the commander of the training fleet, the blame for the accident was shifted from Krang and placed on Kroj’duH and the engineering trainees. Doj’kan, who had been the Chief Engineer on numerous starships before inheriting the leadership of his house, refused to believe that the son he personally taught would make such a mistake. Investing much of House Gorthas’ resources and calling in many favours, Doj’kan finally discovered the truth about the incident. Concurrently, he also discovered that after Krang completed basic training six months from then, he was to command his father’s personal D7B on a brief shakedown cruise following a maintenance overhaul. Blinded with rage, Doj’kan converted his D7B with vengeance as the primary design influence. Six months later, with Graltz, Moltak and several other key members of their House aboard, Krang was returning to his home port from the shakedown cruise. Encountering an unfamiliar Klingon vessel, he hailed it, but was greeted by a broadcast of damning testimony from one of the bridge officers of the illfated D6A. Moltak, infuriated, demanded to know who was broadcasting that testimony. Doj’kan revealed his identity and challenged House Moltak to single ship-to-ship combat immediately. When Moltak, realising the vulnerability of his House, attempted to back down, Krang foolishly accepted the challenge. In a short but bloody battle, the SuvwI’ QeH, destroyed the D7B and the bulk of House Moltak. When the results of the battle were discovered it was clearly obvious that the design changes made to the SuvwI’ QeH were a great improvement over the standard D7B. The High Council not only recognised that Doj’kan was within his rights of revenge but requested the design plans to convert existing D7Bs to the SuvwI’ QeH variant and to construct new ones. The first official production SuvwI’ QeH was christened the IKS Kroj’duH and was launched in 2289. During the Ormong of 2291, it was discovered that the Romulan Star Empire had been providing the traitorous Melkor with much of his military supplies. After Melkor was stopped and the Ormong ended, a short but bloody border war erupted with the Romulan Star Empire. For the first time, the Empire was facing an enemy that regularly used Cloaking Technology. In the initial engagements of the war, reports flooded in of a great white starship that would decloak, fire a mighty barrage of Plasma Torpedoes at a warship and decloak before any counter could be made. Whilst Klingon Commanders are known for embellishing their after action reports, especially when it came to turning an embarrassing defeat into a "valiant stand against a superior foe", the outcome of these reports was clear; the KDF badly needed a better way to deal with cloaked ships than to simply wait for them to attack. The problem was two-fold. Klingon warships possessed neither the sensor power and sensitivity required to detect cloaked vessels, nor the appropriate weaponry for dealing with such a foe even if they were somehow detected. Whilst the first issue was almost insurmountable, particularly in the time scale required, the second had a very simple solution that had been given to the Empire almost on a plate. During the great offensives of 2286 during the Organian Conflict, Klingon forces had captured a number of Federation research stations, originally in search of anything related to Project Genesis. They had found nothing relating to that device, but did find plans for an anti-cloak torpedo; a regular Photon Torpedo designed to explode not on impact but after a certain length of time, and tuned to create a widespread shockwave rather than a focused, shaped-charge explosion. These plans had been noted by the KDF and the Imperial Intelligence Service, stored away and largely forgotten about. Almost concurrently, a need had arose for a ship capable of being built in smaller shipyards, mounting weaponry suitable for planetary bombardment. This task was traditionally performed by Capital Ships, but these warships were scarce and expensive and slow to construct. The war ended prior to any serious progress being made on the design, although work continued on the new Torpedo Cruiser concept, now envisaged as a way to defeat superior numbers of enemy warships. Progress was slow however, what with the War of Pacification raging. In 2291, with the sudden need for a complete weapons system to face cloaked enemy warships, work on this design accelerated, although quickly problems were found. Based off the design of the D7M Suvwl' QeH (Warrior's Anger) Class, power consumption onboard the new Torpedo Cruiser proved too great. Her Primary Armament was cut down to a mere pair of Disruptors, but still there was insufficient power for the formidable number of Photon Torpedo Tubes installed to all operate at once. One option was to convert them to manual loading, but this was seen as a waste of manpower and would cripple effective rate of fire given any crew casualties or prolonged firing. Finally a solution was found. The ship was stripped of her Cloaking Device and her centreline nacelle (purely designed for power generation purposes anyway) was uprated. This gave the comparatively compact design the power reserves needed to mount Capital Ship-grade Secondary Weapons. She was also fitted with the latest in Plasma-Detecting Probes, designed to allow her to detect cloaked vessels if they passed within their proximity. The design was christened the mek'Leth (Shortsword) and production began in the latter half of 2291. She unfortunately entered service too late to participate in the conflict for which she had been designed, but another was brewing on the horizon. Operational History The mek'Leth was bloodied in the General War against the Federation. Whilst never being employed in anti-cloak patrols during the conflict, she did perform her other role, that of planetary bombardment. Several Federation colonies fell due to the firepower of the mek'Leths torpedoes during the course of the conflict. She also found use in attacking heavily fortified targets from long range. Apocrypha After the end of the General War and the coming of the Khitomer Accords of 2293, the requirements for planetary bombardment and anti-cloak patrols waned. No more mek'Leths were constructed although those operational remained in service. Developments in Cloaking Technology and more powerful sensors, particularly by the Romulan Star Empire rendered her ineffective at hunting modern cloaked ships, and against weaker minor powers the Empire favoured conquest by invasion, preserving the infrastructure of a world as much as possible. These developments lead to the withdrawal of remaining mek'Leth Class warships by the end of the 2310s. Specifications * Class: 'Torpedo Cruiser * 'Hull Type Designation: '''KCT * '''Length: 370m * Crew: 395 * Warp Nacelles: '''3 * '''Maximum Sublight Speed: 3300 k/s (33 Mk/s) * Cruise Warp Factor Speed: wf 7.9 * Safe Maximum Warp Factor Speed: wf 9.2 * Hull Rating: '260 HSF * 'Shield Rating: 380 FSP * Sensor Rating: 800 SRU * Armament and Equipment: ** Primary *** 2 × Disruptor Cannon ** Secondary *** 4 × Photon Torpedo Tube *** 2 × Burst Photon Torpedo Tube ** Heavy *** None ** Advanced *** None ** Equipment *** Tractor Beam Emitter *** Plasma-Detecting Probes *** 2 × D'ktagh (Dagger) Shuttle Ships in Service (2292) IKS mek'Leth IKS d'k tagh IKS bat'Leth IKS qis IKS chuHwI' IKS kut'luch IKS mevak IKS qhonDoq IKS tajtiq IKS yan IKS MeK'ToQ IKS Cha'VaK IKS W'orQ IKS TeQ'Iwl IKS Mej'Wlk IKS To'JukH IKS Ghol'ghop IKS mowK'Tek IKS TroK'QeH IKS ChoQ'Wbwl IKS Iwcl'TeQh IKS hoB'roNhk IKS B'aqTaH IKS MiQ'LotK IKS OhK'liQ Category:Klingon Vessels Category:Cruisers Category:Torpedo Cruisers